Just one day after Apple quietly refreshed its iMac lineup with Intel's new Haswell processors, the teardown artists at iFixit have pulled both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch models apart to see what makes them tick.

One of our chief complaints about last year's 21.5-inch iMac was how difficult it was to upgrade, and that remains true of this year's model. You can still access the computer's two RAM slots if you're brave enough to attempt the teardown process (which includes tearing apart and replacing some foam padding), and Apple has included an empty PCIe slot on the base model where last year's model only had an empty spot on the system board. However, the low-end iMac's use of Intel's Iris Pro 5200 integrated GPUs means that it uses one of Intel's R-series CPUs, and those CPUs only come in a soldered-on ball-grid array (BGA) package.

The 27-inch model proves a bit easier to upgrade: it still has four user-accessible RAM slots, still leaves people who opt out of the Fusion Drive or SSD upgrades an empty PCIe slot to use, and still uses a socketed Intel CPU for those of you who want to take the trouble to upgrade that component yourselves after the fact. Both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs were also confirmed to be using triple-antenna (3x3:3) 802.11ac configurations, meaning the iMacs will be capable of the standard's maximum theoretical transfer speed of 1.3Gbps where the 2013 MacBook Airs used a two-antenna setup capable of 867Mbps speeds.

Neither iMac got a very good "repairability score" from iFixit this time around; the more-upgradeable 27-inch model got a five out of ten, while the 21.5-inch model got a two out of ten. The difficult teardown process was cited as one reason for the low scores, as was the fact that the front glass and the LCD are fused together into one monolithic piece.

Promoted Comments

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

64 Reader Comments

The screen may be less repairable, but I would hate to go back to a non-fused screen. I prefer to have a glass-covered screen because I have small children who like to touch things, and glass is much easier to clean. The fused screen almost entirely eliminates the feeling of having to look "through" the screen rather than look "at" the screen, though.

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

I can't stand the thought of throwing away a beautiful screen. I currently have an NEC 2490 and it's been with me through upgrades. Apple should make a part come off the back of these things and that is what gets upgraded.

This whole idea of an iFixit Rating, based on how "easy the tear-down is", is pretty ridiculous. Apple is not designing these things as DIY-friendly computers. They are designed as user-friendly, tightly integrated consumer machines.

They don't WANT customers to have to think about replacing RAM or Fusion chips or doing... ANYTHING with the screen. That's absurd to even expect it. Do you expect your television manufacturers to make your TV easy to take apart and replace components? No. People should not expect that of Apple either, with the possible lone exception of the Mac Pro, and even that is going away. But at least there, there is precedent (big open cases with lots of components that were previously easy to remove by design). With other Macs there is very little precedent.

If your iMac is broken or needs an upgrade, take it to the nearest Apple store and let them handle it, the end. If you're a DIY geek, you should not buy an iMac. They're not designed with you in mind, nor should they be, because you're a tiny fraction of the overall user base for that machine. Same deal with laptops.

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

True, but it also can mean less moving parts, less places for dust and strange creatures/things to get sucked into. Maybe longer repair times, but also less need for repairs. This is annecdotal but I haven't had to take a Mac to service since 2004 and even when I did, it turns out the problem was my fault when putting in a new graphics card!

It also means you are more likely to get a replacement instead of a repaired unit which is even shorter wait time than a repair, if you take to the Apple Store. Your point is taken but it doesn't account for all instances and resolutions available.

This is the 2nd rev with the new super-thin display which they have refused to release separately. Not about to buy a Cinema display in its current incarnation. No way. Come on already, Apple, unleash the beast!

If I had upgradeable options in my early 2009 iMac I would have bought HD space (or an SSD) for sure; if it was an option I would have also upgraded graphics but that's not an option in ANY iMac that I buy.

It might have made my computer last a year longer or so. Fortunately there were no problems with my iMac or else I would have had to pay for repairs.

I do agree that iMacs are, by nature, not DIY machines though and that most people shouldn't expect a high repairability score for them. That's more of a pleasant surprise than it is a feature.

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

True, but it also can mean less moving parts, less places for dust and strange creatures/things to get sucked into. Maybe longer repair times, but also less need for repairs. This is annecdotal but I haven't had to take a Mac to service since 2004 and even when I did, it turns out the problem was my fault when putting in a new graphics card!

It also means you are more likely to get a replacement instead of a repaired unit which is even shorter wait time than a repair, if you take to the Apple Store. Your point is taken but it doesn't account for all instances and resolutions available.

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

10 to 1 that apple has a system worked out for repairs.

Of course they have a method that makes it possible, but it is fairly well known from Apple Store employees that iMacs ARE tricky to fix for them as well as for us. I have disassembled my iMac 27" 2009 model, and while it wasn't fun, it was absolutely doable. This looks hard enough that I don't think I would try it.

(That said, Apple didn't offer SSDs in their iMacs back in 2009, so I knew already at order that I would likely be picking it apart some time down the line. If I were to upgrade today - and I'm not, there's no real reason to replace what I have - I would just order one with an SSD or Fusion Drive )

This is the 2nd rev with the new super-thin display which they have refused to release separately. Not about to buy a Cinema display in its current incarnation. No way. Come on already, Apple, unleash the beast!

I can't agree more - I'm sure they will need to have one by the time the new Mac Pro's come out.

This whole idea of an iFixit Rating, based on how "easy the tear-down is", is pretty ridiculous. Apple is not designing these things as DIY-friendly computers. They are designed as user-friendly, tightly integrated consumer machines.

They don't WANT customers to have to think about replacing RAM or Fusion chips or doing... ANYTHING with the screen. That's absurd to even expect it. Do you expect your television manufacturers to make your TV easy to take apart and replace components? No. People should not expect that of Apple either, with the possible lone exception of the Mac Pro, and even that is going away. But at least there, there is precedent (big open cases with lots of components that were previously easy to remove by design). With other Macs there is very little precedent.

If your iMac is broken or needs an upgrade, take it to the nearest Apple store and let them handle it, the end. If you're a DIY geek, you should not buy an iMac. They're not designed with you in mind, nor should they be, because you're a tiny fraction of the overall user base for that machine. Same deal with laptops.

Sure. But this makes these products very bad from the point of view of sustainable development. And I don't think user-friendliness is incompatible with that.

This is the 2nd rev with the new super-thin display which they have refused to release separately. Not about to buy a Cinema display in its current incarnation. No way. Come on already, Apple, unleash the beast!

I'm sure that's being held back for the MP release, and we know that that's close now.

I can't stand the thought of throwing away a beautiful screen. I currently have an NEC 2490 and it's been with me through upgrades. Apple should make a part come off the back of these things and that is what gets upgraded.

Or you could just get a Mac mini for much cheaper and upgrade your monitor when/if you wish. Roughly the same components (when Haswell comes out for them too). Just as difficult to upgrade, but you get to keep your nice monitor and not feel that you are wasting it.

Mind you, I have a four year old iMac 27" and it looks like I could still sell it on eBay for around US $700, so it's not like you wouldn't recoup at least some of the cost of upgrading the "monitor" along with the rest of the iMac.

I can't stand the thought of throwing away a beautiful screen. I currently have an NEC 2490 and it's been with me through upgrades. Apple should make a part come off the back of these things and that is what gets upgraded.

Or you could just get a Mac mini for much cheaper and upgrade your monitor when/if you wish. Roughly the same components (when Haswell comes out for them too). Just as difficult to upgrade, but you get to keep your nice monitor and not feel that you are wasting it.

Mind you, I have a four year old iMac 27" and it looks like I could still sell it on eBay for around US $700, so it's not like you wouldn't recoup at least some of the cost of upgrading the "monitor" along with the rest of the iMac.

Agreed - a while back I got a $600 Mac Mini, threw in 8GB RAM, and connected it to a 50" 1080p. Same Mac flavor but more Mac to love.

I can't stand the thought of throwing away a beautiful screen. I currently have an NEC 2490 and it's been with me through upgrades. Apple should make a part come off the back of these things and that is what gets upgraded.

I could reluctantly forgive the un-upgradability if it wasn't for the RAM. There really doesn't seem to be a good reason for it, especially with Apples supposedly fabled design skills.

* Reduces repairs from DIY upgrades gone wrong* Drives revenue forward as people buy memory now rather than upgrading later* Allows design to optimize for use rather than ease of adding RAM* Reduces cost by eliminating panel/tooling for RAM access* Will negatively impact 0.01% of potential purchasers

This whole idea of an iFixit Rating, based on how "easy the tear-down is", is pretty ridiculous. Apple is not designing these things as DIY-friendly computers. They are designed as user-friendly, tightly integrated consumer machines.

They don't WANT customers to have to think about replacing RAM or Fusion chips or doing... ANYTHING with the screen. That's absurd to even expect it. Do you expect your television manufacturers to make your TV easy to take apart and replace components? No. People should not expect that of Apple either, with the possible lone exception of the Mac Pro, and even that is going away. But at least there, there is precedent (big open cases with lots of components that were previously easy to remove by design). With other Macs there is very little precedent.

If your iMac is broken or needs an upgrade, take it to the nearest Apple store and let them handle it, the end. If you're a DIY geek, you should not buy an iMac. They're not designed with you in mind, nor should they be, because you're a tiny fraction of the overall user base for that machine. Same deal with laptops.

This implies there is a nearest apple store. Where I live the nearest one is 6 hours+ away but iMacs can easily be ordered online or bought at Best Buy. Apple sadly does seem to be rather stingy with RAM and HDD and prices those BTO options at grossly overpriced prices. And while it may run the operating system it came with fine, I find once you are 2 or 3 versions(Necessary since Apple cuts off security updates for 3 versions back) later you need pretty much the max RAM the machine can handle.

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

Meh, Apple don't do repairs. If they find something is wrong with hardware they hand you a new one (you did go for the extended Applecare, right?) and tell you to recover from Time Capsule (or maybe even do it for you these days).

I could reluctantly forgive the un-upgradability if it wasn't for the RAM. There really doesn't seem to be a good reason for it, especially with Apples supposedly fabled design skills.

* Reduces repairs from DIY upgrades gone wrong* Drives revenue forward as people buy memory now rather than upgrading later* Allows design to optimize for use rather than ease of adding RAM* Reduces cost by eliminating panel/tooling for RAM access* Will negatively impact 0.01% of potential purchasers

I could reluctantly forgive the un-upgradability if it wasn't for the RAM. There really doesn't seem to be a good reason for it, especially with Apples supposedly fabled design skills.

* Reduces repairs from DIY upgrades gone wrong* Drives revenue forward as people buy memory now rather than upgrading later* Allows design to optimize for use rather than ease of adding RAM* Reduces cost by eliminating panel/tooling for RAM access* Will negatively impact 0.01% of potential purchasers

Maybe we have different definitions of "good reason"?

Simplifies product line as performance oriented customers are now pushed to buy the higher end model where memory IS easily upgraded.

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

If you're taking your Mac into get repair then you'll be taking it into an authorised repairer who will be following a manual on how to disassemble the computer as to not damage the device itself.

If I had upgradeable options in my early 2009 iMac I would have bought HD space (or an SSD) for sure; if it was an option I would have also upgraded graphics but that's not an option in ANY iMac that I buy.

It might have made my computer last a year longer or so. Fortunately there were no problems with my iMac or else I would have had to pay for repairs.

I do agree that iMacs are, by nature, not DIY machines though and that most people shouldn't expect a high repairability score for them. That's more of a pleasant surprise than it is a feature.

The early 2009 iMacs and the next gen iMacs were all easy to work on. Not as easy as a computer in a standard ATX or similar tower case, but as easy as you could expect for their size. Of course as they get smaller and thinner upgrade options go away, but until recently the Mac Pro was always a good option if you really needed expandability.

I can repair and service most computers as long as I can get the parts. For Apple products I have always been able to get the parts needed. That said, I have moved past the love of tinkering with my computer to keep it as fast as possible. I just need a reliable computer that gets the job done. That is why I have an Apple, it is why my wife uses her personal Macbook Pro for work rather than the company issued Dell. If I had the time I would not buy computers from any company and always build them custom for my personal needs.

So like it has been said many times, I really don't care how easy it is to upgrade the computer or how easy it is to perform self repairs as long as the warranty service is great and after warranty service costs are reasoniable, which Apple's are.

I can't stand the thought of throwing away a beautiful screen. I currently have an NEC 2490 and it's been with me through upgrades. Apple should make a part come off the back of these things and that is what gets upgraded.

I can't stand the thought of throwing away a beautiful screen. I currently have an NEC 2490 and it's been with me through upgrades. Apple should make a part come off the back of these things and that is what gets upgraded.

There are a lot of sound reasons for soldered-in BGA CPUs and you and IFix it need to stop complaining about it or take the issue to Intel, who actually determines the architecture of the IC packages and interconnects for each generation of processors.

Socketed commodity processors are on a death march, as desktops fade away you will only have soldered BGAs on logic boards or processor cartridges, in which case it is still soldered on a board.

And I have to say, iFixit has become very over-rated as a source of packaging technology information; they may do a lot of tear-downs and make some interesting observations about reparability, but they really do not understand technology to the degree they try to present, fail to understand some of the tradeoffs designers face, and certainly have an economic ax to grind about promoting thier own business in over priced parts and tools.

I hope Ars can try a little harder to balance the information you get from iFixit with other viewpoints from practitioner designers and engineers, we could explain some things they obviously do not understand about performance, latency, thermal management and the like.

Do you think Intel, Apple and others are less knowledgeable?

Not to be a big complainer, but it seems the tech press has fallen in love with iFixit in the past year or so and is buying into the image they project lock, stock and barrel. A little skepticism and fact-checking would be welcome.

There are a lot of sound reasons for soldered-in BGA CPUs and you and IFix it need to stop complaining about it or take the issue to Intel, who actually determines the architecture of the IC packages and interconnects for each generation of processors.

Socketed commodity processors are on a death march, as desktops fade away you will only have soldered BGAs on logic boards or processor cartridges, in which case it is still soldered on a board.

And I have to say, iFixit has become very over-rated as a source of packaging technology information; they may do a lot of tear-downs and make some interesting observations about reparability, but they really do not understand technology to the degree they try to present, fail to understand some of the tradeoffs designers face, and certainly have an economic ax to grind about promoting thier own business in over priced parts and tools.

I hope Ars can try a little harder to balance the information you get from iFixit with other viewpoints from practitioner designers and engineers, we could explain some things they obviously do not understand about performance, latency, thermal management and the like.

Do you think Intel, Apple and others are less knowledgeable?

Not to be a big complainer, but it seems the tech press has fallen in love with iFixit in the past year or so and is buying into the image they project lock, stock and barrel. A little skepticism and fact-checking would be welcome.

Well said! I for one am happy with the tradeoffs and appreciate the effort put into making a better machine, not a more serviceable machine.

Does anyone have any info on how long an iMac lasts? We've noticed here that LCD monitors last about 6-7 years then the power supplies seem to die. We've lost six monitors that way this year, and not cheap consumer monitors either

Note: this post is not a comment on the virtues of recycling or fixing instead of always 'buying new.' These are my thoughts on the subject of Apple products and repairability (or lack thereof).

I've taken most iMacs apart through the 2010 models (had an Apple cert to do in-house repairs for large vfx company). I don't think that Apple ever designed iMacs with the thought that many people would want to 'get under the hood,' with the exception of upgrading their own RAM. Whether they should or not is another arugment entirely. Apple has proven they can make products that are extremely easy to take apart and upgrade (i.e. Mac Pros -- until the coming model). In the case of the iMac, high repairability isn't their focus -- their focus is form and function. For the vast majority of people, the iMac meets their needs. With the current race for smaller, thinner, etc -- there are tradeoffs that often result in designs that aren't iFixit-friendly.

Furthermore, I wouldn't recommend the average person attempt an iMac repair (even on an older model) because the chance of breaking a connector, etc., is pretty high. Based on the number of my friends that pester me to fix their PCs, I would say that repairing most non-Mac PCs are beyond the expertise of most people, much less a tight-tolerance Apple product.

Finally, I'm probably not the first person to point out that iFixt has a financial interest in people making their own repairs.

Before people point out that today's users don't care for upgrades, I want to say that making repairs easier for normal people also makes them easier for the people who's job it is to make repairs. Harder repairs means longer wait times to get your device back and less reliable service.

True, but it also can mean less moving parts, less places for dust and strange creatures/things to get sucked into. Maybe longer repair times, but also less need for repairs. This is annecdotal but I haven't had to take a Mac to service since 2004 and even when I did, it turns out the problem was my fault when putting in a new graphics card!

It also means you are more likely to get a replacement instead of a repaired unit which is even shorter wait time than a repair, if you take to the Apple Store. Your point is taken but it doesn't account for all instances and resolutions available.

I own a late 2012 27" iMac. This thing is a beast, weight wise. I know it is supposed to be made of aluminum, but I suspect they just use aluminum colored lead.

Anyway, last year it was recalled due to a faulty hard drive (mine was definitely affected). So I laboriously unbolted it from my desk (we've had a rash of break ins in the neighborhood), got a friend who owns a car to give me a lift (I'm a city dweller so cars are not something I usually deal with), and took it in (and waited and waited while the understaffed and overworked genius tried and failed to keep up with their appointments). Four days later, I reversed the process. During that time I had to try to keep working using my wife's MacBook air while she was not using it. I wound up seriously behind in my work.

That was a total pain just to swap out a hard drive. What happens if the drive dies when the machine is out of warranty? And drives die all the time. In that case I will go through that whole nightmare AND have the privilege to pay Apple crazy prices to swap out a drive.

But wait! It gets better! THIS year, that same iMac was recalled for a faulty video card (mine was again affected). So I went through the whole process again - unbolting, borrowing a car, waiting an hour for my genius appointment because they were running late, and was behind on my work again. This time for a video card that should have been fairly easy to replace.

Don't discount the need for repairable items. First it is an inconvenience if the item is heavy and you cannot repair it yourself. Second it serves to make the item landfill long long before its time. Finally it costs the end user money when simple (or what should be simple) repairs can only be done by technicians.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.